I woke up one morning to this. I had three stalks in a vase on my kitchen counter the night before. The next morning I had one on the floor with petals chewed off. I returned it to the vase. The very next morning, it was on the floor again with more petals chewed off.
Who did this?
Last week I was at the post office to send off the puzzle pieces to Pat. Normally, at the post office counter, the officer would just print out a label with the exact postage but I wanted beautiful stamps to decorate the envelope and asked her to give me various designs to add up the postage. She was so accomodating that she must have given me at least 4 or 5 designs. She even volunteered to paste it on the envelope. I wish I had my camera with me, just to take a shot before it was sent off.
The above are two of the many designs on the envelope. I was told it could be used for overseas addresses. These are stamps usually used for local addresses. They are new and were issued early this month. Both are local plants. The pigeon orchid only flowers when there is a dip in temperature and they grow on large trees. When they flower, you will see the white blooms on many roadside trees. The flowers of the blue pea vine are used to colour local desserts blue.
I made my favourite curry on Sunday. Went to the market and happened to see the drumsticks for sale. While I was picking up the vegetable, two different ladies asked how I was going to cook it. In my limited Mandarin and mixed with English I tried to describe what I was going to do with it.
Scrape off a little of the outer layer of the vegetable and cut them up in 2 inch lengths. Chop up a large onion. Fry the onion in some oil, add curry paste, fry till fragrant. Add in drumsticks and coconut milk. Boil for 15 mins and add prawns. Simmer for another 5 mins and serve with steamed rice.
Tsuru has chosen. Please send me you addy and I will get the bookmark to you as soon as possible. Congratulations to the winner and thank you all for participating. Do look out for next month's giveaway.
The embroidery in puzzle #3 is from a book called Creative Hand Embroidery by Sue Newhouse. The book gave step by step instructions for sewing this 'Meadow Landscape'. I bought this book maybe 10 years ago but never had the time to try it out. The colours of threads I chose for the long and short stitches for the meadow did not blend so well. I nearly gave up as it took forever to complete the meadow. Also how do you prevent the stitches from puckering when you remove it from the hoop. Did I make the stitches too long? The flowers are done in french knots and lazy daisy stitch. The tree is done in fly stitch and french knots. According to Sue, no two 'Meadow Landscape' will ever turn out the same. The silk is a very light blue.
I was waiting for the mother bird to lay eggs. The last two days, mother bird sat in her nest while I watered my plants. I did not have a chance to check the nest. Today I thought I came home to an empty nest but as I checked there was a chick in it. I waited a while and both mom and dad flew back to feed the little chick. Enjoy the video. The chirping is not from mother or chick but from the dad which is not in view.
How can I not include tatting into my puzzle pieces. I tatted this black and red hummingbird sometime last year. I am glad to use it. The hummingbird tatting pattern is by Sherry Matthews. Unfortunately the link to the pattern is no longer accessible. I did not know how to tat the long beak so I decided to use some Delica beads. The flower on the lower right corner is tatted with Swarovski bicones. Decided to add some czech glass flower beads and I embroidered the flower stem and leaf in stem stitch and stain stitch.
